Systems and methods of discriminating between argon and helium gases for enhanced safety of medical devices
AssigneeBovie Medical Corporation
InventorsGregory A. Konesky, Borislav S. Simeonov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for discriminating between various gases, e.g., argon and helium, for enhanced safety of medical devices are provided. The present disclosure may take the form of a dedicated-use embodiment where a specific gas, helium for example, is expected, and an enabling or “Go” signal is issued when that gas is detected, or an inhibitory or “No-Go” signal when a gas is present that is not identified as helium. Alternately, a control line or input command can be used to select between helium and argon as the expected gas and then issue the appropriate “Go/No-Go” signal, depending on which gas is identified.
Claims23
An apparatus for use with a medical device comprising:
- at least one gas input configured to receive a gas;
- a gas discriminator coupled to the at least one gas input and configured to determine a type of the gas, the gas discriminator further configured to generate a signal indicative of the determined gas type;
- and
- a controller configured to receive the gas type signal, compare the gas type to an expected gas type and generate a control signal to enable or disable the medical device based on the comparison.
An electrosurgical generator for performing electrosurgery on a surgical site of a patient, the electrosurgical generator comprising:
- an electrical power source to supply electrosurgical energy to an electrode of a hand-held plasma generator;
- and
- at least one gas input configured to receive a gas;
- a gas discriminator coupled to the at least one gas input and configured to determine a type of the gas, the gas discriminator further configured to generate a signal indicative of the determined gas type;
- and
- a controller configured to receive the gas type signal, compare the gas type to an expected gas type and generate a control signal to enable or disable the electrical power source based on the comparison.
An electrosurgical system for performing electrosurgery on a surgical site of a patient, the system comprising:
- an electrosurgical generator coupled to an electrical power source to supply power for the electrosurgical system;
- a plasma generator including a noble gas conduit and an electrode disposed with the noble gas conduit, the electrode operatively coupled to the electrosurgical generator to selectively receive electrical energy therefrom such that the electrode at least partially ionizes a carrier gas feed to the noble gas conduit to create a plasma discharge;
- and
- at least one gas input configured to receive a gas;
- a gas discriminator including at least one gas input configured to receive the noble gas and to determine a type of the gas, the gas discriminator further configured to generate a signal indicative of the determined gas type,
- wherein the gas discriminator further includes a controller configured to receive the gas type signal, compare the gas type to an expected gas type and generate a control signal to enable or disable the system on the comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.